(Article written 28 November:) If this article seems premature to the holiday season, it’s because of the prematurity I’ve seen and heard where I live.

The day after Thanksgiving in the US, holiday music began on the classical music station. Across the street from me, some people began putting up their trees indoors with the usual, boring, cookie-cutter clear lights on it — everyone’s tree looks the same (Obey! Conform!) and other holiday clear lights. Yet it’s a month before 25 December 2023. If those trees are not artificial, they will be a fire hazard by the time 25 December arrives.

And unless you’re Anglican, Lutheran or Roman/French/et al Catholic, you likely do not know when the Twelve Days of Christmas are. Do people still sing that carol? Maybe they do in rural areas. And many who sing it have no idea what they’re singing about. The Protestants — such as some Southern Baptists and that ilk — sing the Twelve Days of Christmas, yet they don’t practise them or even know what the Twelve Days are or when they are. In their mind, Christmas is over 26 December or maybe 1 January. Not if you’re honouring the Twelve Days which don’t begin until 25 December. That’s the first day of Christmas. These people likely are clueless when they see “The First Sunday of Christmas” and “The Second Sunday of Christmas” printed on a service leaflet should they attend an Anglican Liturgy during that time. Then they complain about the people in their neighbourhood who have their holiday decorations on until 6 January, which is the 12th day of Christmas followed by The Epiphany. I think they think that the Twelve Days — if they give it any thought at all — are sometime during Advent, but from my experience most Protestants know nothing about Advent either. And they don’t know what Epiphany is either, or the longest season of the church year being Pentecost for that matter. As of this writing, we’re still in Pentecost with holiday trees up. Advent doesn’t begin for over another week.

As of this writing, again, it’s still Pentecost yet the local classical music station began trotting out “Christmas music” over a month before 25 December. I thought to myself: People are going to be sick of this stuff by the time Navidad/Christmas rolls around. Couldn’t they at least wait until Advent — which is not for another week — begins? What’s the rush? In past years, I thought they took a more Liturgical Year approach so they began with music for Advent and then slowly eased into Christmas music midway through Advent. But not this year. As I was hearing, “I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing Here In Christmas Day” and before that she played “For Unto Us a Child is Born” from that excessively performed oratorio Messiah. You would think the man (Händel) only wrote one oratorio the way Messiah is so excessively over-performed, at the neglect of other better symphonic choral works for the season.

But why the rush with holiday music?

As I guess you might have gathered by now, I’m not into the holidays at all. Any of them. As a kid I loved the holidays around this time of year and I looked forward to decorating our house. Although my dad wouldn’t let me do that until around 15 December because before that he said was too early. I don’t think he was too hot on the electricity bill either when that arrived but he was very good about it and didn’t say anything about that. I think he thought that was part of what some kids like to do; it’s part of having kids. And that’s really what the holidays are for: Kids. Children, and children in adult bodies.

I don’t know anyone now as an adult who is into these holidays. They’re all very turned off by the whole thing, in part, because of the rank commercialism and the “hit the stores” nonsense. People spending money they don’t have just for some silly tradition. And because it’s a “family” time, just like with Thanksgiving, people having/forced to get together with people they can’t stand and or get into political arguments with. And COVID is still a thing so it’s also a time for an increase in COVID cases since many people are against the vaccinations and the most recent booster, as well as the flu shot.

As for the holidays, doesn’t it seem like we just did this? Some of the lights are nice, except those people who use all clear or all white which looks very sterile and corporate. Red and green, or red, white (not clear) and green look nice and they are also the colours of México and Italia flags. Palestine’s flag is also red, white and green with black added. Clear lights looks nice with another colour such as clear and cobalt blue. I used that on dad’s house. But clear by itself? No gracias.

As for the Twelve Days of Christmas, it would be good if people knew what they were singing about when they sing that carol. So to review class, Christmas begins 25 December and goes for twelve days until 6 January. Although the Orthodox Christmas begins on 7 January each year.

“The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims sovereignty over Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and some other Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the ancient Julian calendar. Christmas falls 13 days later on that calendar, or Jan. 7, than it does on the Gregorian calendar used by most church and secular groups.”